Flares
by Blade Prophecy
Summary: When the lift cranks open, Elizabeth is met with a large crowd dominated by males who either want her to join straight away or want her thrown off a cliff, and if all of that is not overwhelming enough, she can't remember anything except her first name. The Gladers have no idea why they're there, or what life is like outside the maze but everything is soon about to change...
1. Chapter 1

I shift uncomfortably, feeling the cold rush of air run through the strands of my short hair, but what did I look like? I couldn't be sure in the darkness of the confined space I was in. Everything seemed to small and claustrophobic, and the oils and smells from the boxes opposite me turned my stomach sour with sickness, I was sure I was going to throw up. I look down at my hands, they're murky from the lift, but I can't see much else past my pasty hands, for the darkness was overshadowing everything. Harsh sounds of chains ripped and echoed around me, like a historical factory building, perhaps that's where I am, but I couldn't be so sure. I have no memory, but I have a working knowledge of the world, and that was the most frustrating thing about all of this, trying to piece my life together but I don't know, no face, names or places come to mind, yet I imagined things, trees blossoming with vibrant pink cherry blossoms, streets coated in thick sheets of snow, but have I been in these settings before? who knows?

 _My name is Elizabeth_... I thought, but it's all I know, How old am I? what do I look like? Where am I? It all seems to hit me in a fast motion like an icy blast on a warm summers day.

I suddenly feel a surge of frustration, nothing made yet sense but in a way everything made perfect sense. I knew how to braid hair, but who taught me? and I know that the leaves on trees turn golden in the Autumn, but who showed me? I let out a cry of misunderstanding and utter confusion as I look around the lift. In the opposite corner, there were boxes full to the brim with supplies, I didn't know what supplies, but even if I dared to look I wouldn't be able to see a thing through the blackness that surrounds me.

"Someone help me!" I call out mindlessly, but all that comes back is an echo of my voice.

"Someone... Help... Me!" I scream louder, but echos bounced straight back, only this time they were louder. I wanted to cry, but instead I curl up into a ball in the corner of the lift, my arms wrapped around my knees and my face buried looking down. who the fuck am I, and where the fuck am I going?

Though moments later, I catch a glimpse of a thin slit of light reflecting from the bottom of the lift, I raise my head to see an opening, and finally the noise of what I assumed to be steel openings clank open. As the light stabbed my eyes, I squint them, but I don't close them for a second, anything could be up there waiting for me, anyone could be up there...

When I finally reach the inevitable destination, I am met with what must be millions of pairs of eyes - well, maybe not to that extreme, but it's certainly what it feels like.

"Is that a girl?"

"Well move out the way klunk-head I want to see!"

"I call dibs"

"I wouldn't she looks like she's been pulled straight outta hell"

"Dude it smells like your ass down there"

It seems like a million voices are all talking at once, some words register, others don't, and I feel like a huge chuck of my vocabulary had been  
taken away with my memories. l myself close my eyes once more lightly and I inhale deeply before exhaling, trying to calm my racing heart and spinning brain, I felt lightheaded and weak, but when I opened my eyes again I am met with a sudden shock from realization.

 _They are all boys_ I exhale once more, they all seem young, ranging from ages of fifteen to eighteen, but I can't be certain, I can barely think straight never mind observe every single person surrounding me.

One of the boys dropped a rope of ivory from the side, and I walk over to it slowly and grab onto it before I am pulled up towards their ground level, arms come down to grab me and I am then hoisted the rest of the way, all the boys are silent now, as if I was a new species they had never seen in person before, I felt foreign, an outsider, and I certainly didn't feel all warm and welcome.

"Nice to meet ya, shank" perks up a deep voice from a hard looking boy with dark skin and a tough jaw, "Hope you enjoyed your one way ticket"

"What? Where am I?" It's strange hearing my own voice at it's normal tone, it's high, but not too high either, a little raspy from the shouting.

"Nowhere good" says the boy, "But this is the Glade, your new home, better be a quick learner Greenie, there's a lot to take in"


	2. Chapter 2

Everything looked so surreal here, but it all felt so treacherous. It was set out large and spaced, different buildings and plants and crops all placed around the large grassy space in front of four giant towering walls that were thick grey and covered in ivory vines. It made me feel claustrophobic.

I felt the air turn cold on my back, like a sudden wave of ice and I felt the hit of reality. _Hope you enjoyed your one way ticket,_ I felt myself inhale sharply. There's no going back. The worst feeling is knowing that I'll never know who sent me here, or why they did it, I'll never know where and who they took me from, did I have parents? did I have friends? I don't think I'll ever know. I exhale deeply once again.

The boys around me began to mumble about me once again, setting me on edge, I looked at the boy before me, the dark skinned one that had introduced me to _nowhere good._ He shrugged, "We call this the Glade, I'm Alby the leader, what's your name, Greenie?"

Everyone silenced around me, all watching me once again, I felt like screaming in frustration, I had this horrible gut feeling of loss and fear that I just wanted to be alone, so I grit my teeth and did the possibly either the most brave or stupid thing I could think of. Run.

"Hey, get back here, Shank!" Alby called from behind me, but I had already chosen my fate, I wasn't going to stop now. I could hear the whistles and calls from the other boys, some of their footsteps following me too, but I was a faster runner than I had anticipated. My feet moved in swift and fast motions, like I was running on clouds, but I knew I couldn't do this forever, the Glade was small, and I wasn't so sure I wanted to go past the walls yet, they looked like they were there for a reason, so I looked and pushed towards the closest tree and began to climb it.

"Oh look, this one was smart enough to climb" One boy laughs from the foot of the tree, they didn't exactly lack in speed either.

"Not like we haven't seen a climber before" Another growls before pulling himself up and begins to hoist himself up after me, I pull myself up onto a thick branch and let myself sit, the boy looked up at me, he was scowling, and narrowing his dark eyes, he was pale skinned and had very short light brown hair, he had a lot of muscle and was rather tall, but that was his downfall, he grabbed onto the next branch to pull himself up when the branch rapidly snapped, and he fell into a heap at the bottom of the tree, causing an eruption of laughter from the others.

"Oh shut it" He snapped, "Get down here Greenie, we're trying to help you"

"I don't want help!" I call back, his face was a little pink now, and I couldn't work out if it was from the embarrassment of falling or the anger that I could see on his face.

"Move out the way Gally" A kinder voice intercepts, it's another boy, with blonde hair a smaller build, he wasn't as tall as Gally, but he wasn't far off it either, I couldn't see the rest of his features from this height.

"She's violating the code of-"

"Yeah, yeah, rules and more rules, look, she's a Greenie and scared as hell, I remember when you came up for the first time, you looked like you'd klunked your pants, now go back to work, the day hasn't ended yet, that goes for the rest of you too"

The boys all groaned.

"You heard him, go!" Alby's strong voice overtook theirs, and despite their groaning, they all shifted back to work as Alby and the blonde haired boy spoke at the foot of the tree in hushed whispers, after a moment Alby nodded, his thumbs up, then walked off towards on of the huts on the left side of the Glade.

The other boy stayed though, in fact, he sat down, his back against the tree.

"I'm not coming down, if that's what you're waiting for, you can't catch me out!" I called down defensively.

"I'm not going to catch you out, Greenie. I'm going to wait here until you want to come down, or if you want to ask any questions, I know how scary all this is, we've all been through it" The sound of his voice felt somewhat reassuring, it was well spoken, it was a different accent to all the others, that's when I realized I didn't even know my own accent, but I didn't talk for a moment or two, I began to think about the situation.

I was quite high up, so I began to lower myself a few branches, just enough so I didn't have to shout in order to communicate with the boy.

"Do you remember anything?" I asked him when I was finally settled on a new branch.

"Before the lift? nah, none of us do, except for our names, I suppose"

"Where are all the girls?"

"There are none, well, there's you now, but you're the first one."

"Why?"

"I don't know"

"What is this place, why are there walls like that?"

"Well, this is the Glade, we all work, there's different jobs to match everyone's personal skills, I'm a gardener since my foot is bust, but it ain't a bad job, really. And those walls? well, I don't know but they keep the bed bugs away at night.

"Bed bugs?"

"Monsters I suppose could be another good name for them, but I don't want to go into too much detail about that on your first day, basically, don't go outside the walls, that's one of the rules here"

"What are the other rules?"

"You work just like everyone else, we all have our places and jobs to do here, we don't stand for slackers, and also, no hurting other Gladers, we all have to trust each other, it's all we have, and if there's no trust then we won't be able to survive, there would be no order, and we can't afford to live like that."

I continued to ask questions, and the boy continued to answer them, and by dusk I was beginning to run out of questions to ask and he was running out of knowledge to give.

"You can come up here if you want" I say shyly after a few moments of silence.

"Can't climb, my foot is bust" He responded, so I carefully began to climb down the tree, and when I reached the bottom, I sat down beside him, though I didn't look at him, I fixed my eyes on the floor, embarrassed.

"Now isn't that better," he chuckled.

"Can I ask you one more question?" I asked him as I crossed my legs and began playing with the cuffs of my sleeves, this was much easier when his eyes weren't fixed on me.

"Sure"

"What do I look like?"

"Hmm let's see, we'll you're short, you have pale skin and short curly hair that's kind of like a dark brown, almost black." He then placed his fingers on my chin and turned my face gently to face his, he was handsome, there was no denying it, electric blue eyes and a smirk on his intricate and beautiful face.

"Well your eyes are green, you have some freckles and a cute lil' nose, so, pretty normal if you ask me"

"Thanks" I responded, my cheeks heating in an unstoppable motion that I wish I could hide.

"You sound different too, like me, I think you must have been from Wales"

"What's Wales?" I ask him curiously and he smiled,

"A country in Britain, I'm English, probably Southern, the rest of these idiots seem to come from America, except Minho, he's Asian, probably Korean. I don't know how I remember all these places, no one else seems to, not that it matters though, it's not like I'm ever going to see those places, is it?"

"You never know" I responded to what seemed to be more of a rhetorical question, though I was finally noticing the difference in my accent now he had mentioned it.

"Yeah well, come on you, I'll show you to the kitchens so you can have an early dinner, Alby will give you the tour tomorrow"

"Okay"


End file.
